The winter maintenance classification for Highway 16 and Highway 97 in northern B.C. will be raised, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone said Tuesday, meaning plows and sand trucks will take to the roads more quickly and after smaller snowfalls.
The changes are expected to be in effect by mid-to-late February and partly come in answer to the number of collisions and fatalities this winter, Stone acknowledged during a scrum with local media at the CN Rail container terminal in Prince George.
"First and foremost, I wanted to look at this from the perspective of safety and what more can be done to make the corridors as safe as possible," Stone said.
Since early November, there have been 13 deaths from eight crashes along Highway 16, which stretches 1,050 km from Prince Rupert to the B.C.-Alberta border, many of them involving collisions between passenger vehicles and larger commercial trucks, often logging trucks or semis pulling trailers.
Stone said the volume of industrial traffic has grown with increased economic activity in northern B.C. and he expects the trend will continue.
"We've had some pretty tough winter conditions over the past number of weeks up here but there has been a heightened number of collisions, a heightened number of fatailites and a steady increase in volume," Stone said.
"So when you take all of those factors combined, in addition to the fact that we expect additional industrial activity to take place in the central and northern parts of the province over the coming months and years, this seemed to me to be a no brainer."
The maintenance level will be raised to class A for the entire length of Highway 16. Currently, most of Highway 16 is maintained at a rural highway class B level, except for main arterials through cities and the stretch of road between the B.C.-Alberta border and Tête Jaune Cache, which are already maintained at a Class A level.
The change will also apply to Highway 97 between Prince George and Chetwynd, a 300-km stretch, which is also currently class B. After the change, the entire northern section of Highway 97, from Cache Creek to the end of provincial jurisdiction for the highway north of Fort St. John, will be class A.
Raising the level will mean lower thresholds for deploying plows and sanding trucks:
- The maximum allowable snowfall will be four centimetres, rather than six, for one lane in each direction; eight cm rather than 10 for second lanes; and 12 cm rather than 10 for all other lanes.
- The timeline for plowing slush and removing broken compact snow will be 90 minutes, down from two hours;
- Work on removing compacted snow and ice will begin within two days of the last measurable snowfall as opposed to three;
- Snow along the highway's shoulders will be removed within four days of the last measurable snowfall rather than six.
- Patrols will take place every four hours instead of every eight hours.
It's expected the higher level will add an extra $2 million to $3 million per year to the amount the provincial government pays to the region's highways maintenance contractors. There are four contractors along Highway 16 and two on Highway 97 between Prince George and Chetwynd.
Typically, traffic volume must be at least 5,000 vehicles per day to trigger a raise in classification but Stone can also use his ministerial discretion to make the change. Depending on the section, he said traffic volumes are "in the range" for raising the level.
Doug Donaldson, the NDP's MLA in Stikine, welcome the news, which came about a week after he called on Stone through the media to raise the level.
"It will mean increased maintenance standards and I think that can't be anything but good and the people of the north deserve it," Donaldson said.
Stone credited the region's Liberal MLAs for bringing the problem to his attention and said Donaldson never contacted him about the issue.
Asked if the move could have been made sooner, Donaldson noted that in September the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine did present a resolution to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention calling for improved maintenance.
"So there was an opportunity to act sooner," Donaldson said.
Improved maintenance is also a way to return to this region some of the tax revenue the government is generating from the major resource projects in northern B.C., Donaldson also said.
Nechako Lakes Liberal MLA John Rustad said more than $150 million has been spent on road improvements in his riding since his party came to power. The work has included more than a half-dozen passing lanes as well as left-hand turning lanes and deceleration lanes and resurfacing, he said.
